Socio-economic performance assessment of port clusters: more challenges, fewer solutions?

Performance indicators on socio-economic impacts of seaport activities are important instruments in supporting and strengthening the societal acceptance of these activities. However, the use of these indicators for the purpose of gaining broader acceptance for seaport activities and port expansion is limited and has been questioned by scholars, as well as different stakeholders within the seaport environment. Recognizing the problems associated with these indicators, through evaluating the building of such a measurement system at an European level, this chapter particularly focuses (1) on the results of a stakeholder consultation on methodological aspects of socio-economic impact calculation in 58 European ports, and (2) the results of the attempt to develop a top-down harmonized calculation method for calculating socio-economic indicators for all European core ports and (3) the results of developing a proxy-based methodology to allow seaports to calculate basic socio-economic impacts. Findings are on variable and data-specifications needed for future possibilities for building such measurement systems as well as on institutional requirements.